This invention relates to a simulator for practising tracheal intubation, the simulator comprising a manikin head attached to a support with the face turning away from the support and having a skull comprising a movable lower jaw, and a neck which is connected to the skull and the support in such a manner that the manikin head can be tilted forwards and backwards.
Tracheal intubation is a procedure which is used to establish a free airway to the lungs of a patient e.g. a patient who is unconscious and whose respiration has to be assisted by artificial lung ventilation. Tracheal intubation comprises inserting a non-collapsible flexible cuffed tracheal tube e.g. a rubber tube into trachea and then inflating the cuff with air so as to establish a seal between the exterior surface of the tracheal tube and the walls of trachea.
When tracheal intubation has been performed as described, the patient's lungs will be in direct communication with the free air and the patient's mouth and throat will be separated from said free passage so that vomit liquid, blood or secretion are prevented from passing into the trachea and the lungs.
Tracheal intubation should be performed rapidly and safely i.e. because the patient ordinarily is unconscious when the procedure is performed. A rapid and safe tracheal intubation requires that the person performing it has been carefully trained and since such training can be performed on live patients only in rare cases, special simulators for practising tracheal intubations have been developed. Such a simulator is described in the British Journal of Anasthesia, No. 45, 400 (1973), the simulator comprising a manikin head and neck in which the parts simulating the entry to the trachea, the rear part of the palate and the pharyngeal ligaments adjacent the epiglottis comprise separate elements which move independently of one another.
Due to such independent movement the well known simulator does not give a realistic impression of the problems which in practice are involved when performing tracheal intubation.
In practice the tissue forming the rear part of the oral cavity is strongly stretched when the patient's tongue is pressed against the lower jaw to allow the operator to observe the entrance to the trachea. Such stretching cannot be simulated by using synthetic elastic materials and, therefore, it has been necessary to accept a less realistic solution comprising the use of separate and independently movable elements in the rear part of the oral cavity and the throat.